At A Glance
- Prioritize Castle upgrades to unlock new features and stronger troops.
- Only upgrade prerequisite buildings unless a building directly boosts your progression.
- Keep your builders active at all times to maximize efficiency.
Rise of Castles: Ice and Fire Castle Upgrade Guide
Your Castle is the heart of your kingdom in Rise of Castles: Ice and Fire. Every major feature, including stronger troops, advanced research, and new buildings, depends on increasing your Castle level.
However, upgrading every building equally is one of the biggest mistakes beginners make. Instead, successful players follow an efficient upgrade path that minimizes wasted resources while unlocking new content as quickly as possible.
This guide explains the best building priorities from the early game through the late game.
Why Your Castle Should Always Be the Priority
Every Castle upgrade unlocks new opportunities, including:
- Higher troop tiers
- Better Academy research
- Stronger buildings
- Increased march capacity
- New gameplay features
Whenever you’re deciding what to build next, your first question should be:
“Does this help me reach the next Castle level?”
If the answer is yes, it’s usually worth prioritizing.
Upgrade Prerequisite Buildings First
Most Castle upgrades require certain buildings to reach a specific level.
Rather than upgrading everything evenly, focus only on buildings required for your next Castle level.
This saves:
- Resources
- Speed-ups
- Building time
It’s a strategy widely recommended by experienced strategy game players because it keeps your progression moving without unnecessary delays.
Academy Should Always Be Busy
The Academy is arguably the second most important building after your Castle.
Research provides permanent bonuses such as:
- Faster construction
- Improved gathering
- Increased troop attack
- Better troop defense
- Faster training
- Higher resource production
Never allow your Academy to sit idle if you can afford another research project.
Barracks, Stables and Ranges
Military buildings should also receive regular upgrades.
Higher building levels unlock:
- Stronger troop tiers
- Faster training
- Increased troop capacity
Focus primarily on the troop type you’ve chosen to specialize in rather than trying to develop every unit equally.
Upgrade Your Warehouse
Although it isn’t the most exciting building, the Warehouse protects valuable resources from enemy attacks.
As kingdoms become more competitive, protecting millions of resources becomes increasingly important.
Keeping your Warehouse reasonably upgraded can save days of farming after a failed defense.
Resource Buildings Still Matter
Your economy powers everything.
Upgrade:
- Farms
- Lumber Mills
- Iron Mines
- Gold production buildings
While resource tiles eventually become your main source of materials, city production provides steady income throughout the day.
Avoid over-investing in these buildings early, but don’t neglect them entirely.
Keep Both Builders Working
If you’ve unlocked multiple builders, try to keep both active whenever possible.
Plan upgrades so that:
- One builder handles long upgrades.
- The second completes shorter prerequisite buildings.
This minimizes downtime and speeds up overall progression.
Save Speed-Ups for Important Upgrades
Building speed-ups are extremely valuable.
Rather than using them on every short timer, save them for:
- Castle upgrades
- Event objectives
- Alliance competitions
- Time-limited rewards
Using speed-ups during construction events often provides additional rewards, effectively increasing their value.
Don’t Ignore Your Embassy
The Embassy becomes increasingly valuable after joining an alliance.
Higher Embassy levels improve:
- Alliance Help
- Reinforcements
- Rally participation
Players in active alliances often complete upgrades much faster thanks to the reduced timers from alliance assistance.
Common Building Mistakes
Avoid these common errors:
- Upgrading every building equally.
- Ignoring prerequisite requirements.
- Leaving builders idle.
- Forgetting Academy research.
- Spending speed-ups on short upgrades.
- Neglecting resource production.
These mistakes can significantly slow your kingdom’s growth.
Late-Game Upgrade Priorities
Once your Castle reaches higher levels, priorities begin to shift.
Focus more on:
- Military buildings
- Academy research
- Hero development facilities
- Dragon-related buildings
- Advanced production structures
At this stage, military power becomes increasingly important for kingdom events and alliance warfare.
Final Thoughts
The fastest-growing kingdoms in Rise of Castles: Ice and Fire aren’t necessarily the ones that spend the most—they’re the ones that upgrade efficiently.
By focusing on Castle requirements, maintaining constant research, keeping builders active, and saving speed-ups for major upgrades, you’ll unlock new content much faster than players who upgrade every building equally.
Planning several upgrades ahead is one of the simplest ways to gain a long-term advantage.